1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the application of surface coatings to substrates (e.g., metal substrates). More specifically, the invention relates to surface coatings made to have the appearance of polished stone.
2. Description of Related Art
Surface coatings that have the appearance of polished stone have many applications. For example, metal strip with a surface coating that has the appearance of polished stone is particularly useful for the manufacture of building materials (e.g, exterior cladding, interior wall panels, or ceiling panels) for the construction industry where the materials can that have the visual appearance of polished stone but have a much lower mass than that of actual stone.
Several manufactures have developed surface coating techniques that allow the production of metal strip that has the appearance of aged metal or natural stone. For example, U.S. Steel (Pittsburgh, Pa.) sell the “Weather Metal Series™” coil-coated strip metal products, which have paint coatings that resembles weathered metal. In addition, PreCoat Metals (Saint Louis, Mo.) sell the “Field Stone,” “Natural Stone” and “Architecture Tile” coil-coated strip metal products, which have paint coatings that resemble unpolished stone. However, none of the surface coating techniques currently employed in the art produce a surface coating on a metal strip that has the appearance of polished stone.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for novel surface coatings that can give articles (e.g., articles formed from metal strip) the appearance of polished stone.